I run a computer repair company, and yesterday was given a piece of advice from a fellow computer professional; which was to always replace the PSU at the same time as replacing a dead motherboard.
Theory being, most MB's die due to the PSU sending unstable voltage so it is fairly likely to happen again, so for the price of an extra £20 you and the customer will have piece of mind.
Can any other professionals comment on this? I'm unsure whether to take it as gospel.
Hmm, Im in no way an expert on voltages and so forth but there are many reasons a motherboard could die that doesnt involve getting fried by the PSU. Of course you should always have a good brand name PSU either way so...
If you're only paying £20 for a PSU then you're probably going to run into problems with it.
I say invest in a good PSU first day, and if the motherboard dies you can probably blame something else. Of course if the customer was willing to shell out for a new PSU that was perhaps a bit more expensive than a cheap one that'll probably break down, go for it!
If you are talking about the average computer, yes. You could also check the PSU, measuring it's volts and run a few stress tests, but that is usually a lot more expensive than a new PSU.
If you are talking about enthusiast computers, no. Replacing a 1000 Watt brand PSU because of a mainboard failure without checking the PSU is wrong.
You shouldn't follow that advice blindly though. Think about how often did you have to replace a MB twice in a row because of a faulty PSU? I know for a fact that some of the big retailers don't replace it. If the MB is fried or broken, they send out a technician that replaces just that and that's it.
It's all about cost efficiency and, in the case of smaller computer shops, reputation. If you always replace it, you might end up being referred to as "the expensive one". On the other hand, if people come back by the dozens because their MBs fried again, your reputation goes down the litter as well.
Talk to your costumers and tell them about the risks and the costs. It takes less than 5 minutes and if something happens then at least they have an idea what is going on and probably come back.
Well when you get in a computer for repair and it includes a enlite PSU I would say hell yes replace the PSU with the MainBoard.
If the PSU is a more expensive one I say check the voltages to the ATX spec and also check the ac ripple to the ATX spec, under a minimum of half the PSU load.
